The men’s soccer team improved their record to 5-2 after their 4-0 victory during their home opener on Sept. 21 against Westminster. Junior Anthony D’Angelo had two goals in the home opener, and senior goalkeeper Brett Johnson had his third solo shutout of the season. 
“We get our strength not from one or two individuals, but as a whole team,” said head coach Brenton Joseph. “I believe that has been shown not only today, but in the entire season this far.”
Danilo Panici, Michael Roth, and Michael Brazinski all had at least one assist, and  Brazinski and Fieseler had a goal and D’Angelo had 2 goals, showing how the team plays as a whole.
Senior Brett Johnson had another shutout for the season against Westminster, and also made three saves.  Last week Johnson was awarded the CCIW Defensive Player of the Week, and with this victory he is trying for a repeat.
Throughout the whole game Augustana had 14 shots to Westminster’s 6, including 7 of Augustana’s shots being on goal, and only 3 for Westminster.  The home team also only recorded 14 fouls to the visitors 18.  Coach Joseph believed that overall the team played a strong game which led to victory.
“We are already making progress on our team goals,” said Joseph. “We always want to play exceptionally well and start preparing for our conference games because we believe we can make it into the conference tournament this year.”
The home crowd was much appreciated by the team as the bleachers were full during their first home match.
“The home crowd was nice to see,” said junior forward Gabriel Brouillette. “Their energy helped keep our energy up and pumped us up throughout the game. They were just as much a part of this victory as we were because without them, we would have had to just rely on our own energy as if it was an away game.”
Brouillette and the team hopes this support continues throughout the season, as they have more home matches.
“Being at home brings a sense of familiarity,” said Brouillette. “We know the field very well as we have practice on it everyday and having our fans behind makes it a lot easier to stay up the entire game.”
Their next game is Sep. 24 against Central College, but the coach is also looking forward to their first conference game at home on Oct. 4 against Illinois Wesleyan, in which Joseph looks to have a big crowd.
“I want a huge crowd for that first conference game,” said Joseph. “Illinois Wesleyan is a huge rival and we want to start our conference play out right, which the crowd will help us do.”